Ferrari hits out at Stefan GP 'vultures' and Mosley's 'holy war'

23 February 2010

In an extraordinary pre-season outburst, Ferrari has cast aside all notions of political correctness in F1 by labelling Stefan GP 'vultures' and the state of the 2010 newcomers a shambles created by former FIA President Max Mosley's 'holy war' against the sport's manufacturers

Not always regarded for its diplomacy and tact when it comes to political matters in F1, less than three weeks from the beginning of the 2010 world championship campaign, Ferrari has launched a stinging attack on the lamentable state of some of the newcomers set to swell the grand prix starting grid this year – the product, the Scuderia contends, of former FIA President Max Mosley's 'holy war' that drove half of the manufacturers out of the sport.

F1 will celebrate its 60th birthday in 2010, but it is a very different-looking field to that which lined up 24 or even twelve months ago, with Honda, BMW and Toyota having all since departed the fray and Renault having sold out a majority 75 per cent stake in its Enstone-based outfit to Luxembourg investment firm Genii Capital.

Whilst the manufacturers in question left for varying reasons, Ferrari claims that behind all of their withdrawals was the hell-bent determination of Mosley to implement a controversial and ill-conceived £40 million budget cap on every competitor from this season onwards – a move that was subsequently postponed until 2012 in response to fierce criticism and opposition from within the top flight, albeit coming too late to prevent Honda, BMW and Toyota from walking away.

In their stead have arrived a host of new challengers, with Lotus F1, Virgin Racing, Campos Meta 1 and USF1 confirmed on the entry list – and Serbian hopeful Stefan GP waiting patiently and expectantly in the wings should any of them falter.

The most likely to fail to make the grade are incontrovertibly Campos – which late last week was taken over by majority stakeholder José Ramón Carabante [see separate story – click here] after falling significantly behind on its payments to chassis-builder Dallara, leading to a costly halt in construction – and USF1, which remains in all sorts of financial difficulty with mooted sponsors pulling the plug and the North Carolina-based concern having applied to the sport's governing body requesting to be permitted to skip the opening four grands prix as it continues to try to make the grid.

Neither Campos nor USF1 has yet to turn a wheel in anger – and neither is likely even to do so until the practice day for the curtain-raising Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir on 12 March, if indeed they make it that far in the first place. It is a sorry story, Ferrari opines – and the Prancing Horse leaves little doubt as to who it believes is the guilty author.

'For many of the teams, this coming week is a crucial one, as the bell rings to signal the final lap, with the last test session getting underway in Barcelona,' reads a special 'Horse Whisperer' feature on the famous Maranello-based outfit's website. 'It is one last chance to run the cars on-track, to push reliability to the limit and to try and find some performance. That's the situation for many teams, but not for all of them.

'Of the 13 teams who signed up – or were induced to sign up – for this year's championship, to-date only eleven of them have heeded the call, turning up on-track, some later than others, and while some have managed just a few hundred kilometres, others have done more, but at a much-reduced pace.

'As for the twelfth team, Campos Meta 1, its shareholder and management structure has been transformed, according to rumours which have reached the Horse Whisperer through the paddock telegraph, with a sudden cash injection from a munificent white knight, well-used to this sort of last-minute rescue deal. However, the beneficiaries of this generosity might find the knight in question expects them to fulfil the role of loyal vassal. All this means it is hard to imagine the Dallara-designed car showing its face at the Catalunya Circuit, with Sakhir a more likely venue to witness the return of the Senna name to a Formula 1 session.

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The finger of blame been correctly pointed at Mosley and the finger of meddling been pointed squarely at the dwarf.
There is a wiff of irony though, they were quite happy to take 100 million from Max and Bernie and get special dispensation to veto all rule changes to suit their own needs (under Todt's stewardship). That's in the past tho.
Ferrari is run differently now and it does show.
As for this pop at Max and Bernie...as the advert says...priceless

Richard / Johnson - Please stop these petty arguments before both of you start to loose face on these pages. You both clearly have a grasp of the technological side of F1 so why not discuss rather than have petty arguments? Daft isn't it? And I'm not pointing the finger of blame at one or the other. Stop baiting each other and/or stop raising to the others bait.
Please don't take offense at this comment but it had to be said before either of you looses face.